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This book endorses alternative therapies
for sleep disorders. It is a useful guide to what those therapies are,
and the claims made for them, but it is not a critical review. Readers
need to know that from the outset.
Sleep disorders, this book contends, "develop as a result of a combination
of poor diet and food allergies; an accumulation of toxins in the body
(from the environment, food, drugs, and other sources); biomechanical
stress and imbalances; poor stress-coping abilities and other emotional
factors; hormonal imbalances; and geopathic irregularities."
There's no indication here of what's common (emotional factors) and
rare (toxins). Terms such as "geopathic irregularities" aren't in the
glossary of The International Classification of Sleep Disorders,
the sleep field's diagnostic bible. (The authors of this book define
geopathic stress as "an abnormal energy field generated underground
by mineral deposits, water streams, or geological faults.")
Herbert Ross, a chiropractor and founder of the Aspen Sleep Institute
in Colorado, Keri Brenner, an acupuncturist and writer, and Burton Goldberg,
the founder and publisher of AlternativeMedicine.com, state at the start
of this book that many of the treatments they describe "have not been
investigated, approved, or endorsed by any government or regulatory
agency."
Their reporting style, however, will make it hard for the average reader
to distinguish treatments that have received rigorous testing in double-blind
controlled studies from unproved therapies.
The authors make a good case for healthy sleep habits, such as observing
a regular bedtime and wake-up time, avoiding caffeine and alcohol near
bedtime, and not smoking. They describe the benefits of relaxation strategies
for insomnia, and of light therapy for Seasonal Affective Disorder and
other mood disorders. Reports in peer-reviewed mainstream medical journals
affirm the value of these approaches.
The authors describe melatonin in the same straight-forward fashion,
however, calling it a "wonder drug." The evidence for that is arguable.
Consumer Reports reported in its May 2000 issue that melatonin-users
among the nearly 47,000 readers responding to its annual survey judged
it less effective than all other treatments for insomnia, including
over-the-counter medications. The authors of this book appropriately
caution against long-term use of melatonin.
They also extol the benefits of magnet therapy for sleep disorders,
which has received virtually no scientific scrutiny. And what can one
make of the assertion that "the bed should not be placed directly beneath
a window as too much vital energy will be lost during the night?" This
concept comes from Feng Shui, the Chinese philosophy of household design.
Consumer Reports found that about one-third of its survey respondents
had used alternative remedies. Most sought relief from troublesome symptoms
that had not improved with conventional remedies. This finding worries
sleep specialists, who feel they have a wide range of helpful treatments
to offer: treatments shown to be both effective and safe. Anyone seeking
medical help or reading a self-help book needs to keep those criteria
firmly in mind.
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